Quick and Dirty Autosave Mod

[chumbucket91]

Maybe my gaming sensibilities are too modern, but nothing kills my desire to play this game quite like missing a ledge by a floating point rounding error, falling three hundred feet onto the cobblestones of a lovingly fm-author crafted alley somewhere in Bridgeport, shattering Definitely-Not-Garrett's knees into a fine paste, and realizing that I haven't saved in half an hour. With the release of 2.12's support for "tdm_user_addon_" scripts, and after faceplanting in Lady Leicester's back alley for the fifth goddamn time this year, I decided to crack open the scripting tutorials and try to solve this problem.

An hour later, and I've hacked together this player addon mod/script to call $player1.saveGame() every five minutes during gameplay. It will create up to five autosaves, named "__autosave_X", while you're playing an fm. It simply starts at number 1 and counts up whenever you boot up an fm, wrapping around after reaching 5, so I don't think its guaranteed to always pick the oldest save to overwrite. It seems to run well enough after a quick test in "A New Job", though, so I thought I'd upload it here just in case anyone else has similar frustrations.

Note that these autosaves do cause the game to stutter while the save is happening, so this little QOL feature does notably impact the game. If you're already in the habit of constantly mashing F5 you probably won't need this little mod. Also, it seems like the autosaves can't screenshot the game correctly so they are blank.

To install, simply drop tdm_autosave.pk4 into your root Dark Mod install folder. To uninstall, delete the same .pk4.

If there are any small, straightforward improvements I can make let me know, but I imagine there are lots of dark corner case bugs here (which may well be why this isn't officially supported in tdm itself?) and my programmer powers are limited. Feel free to copy/modify/share anywhere you like.

tdm_autosave.pk4

[wesp5]

This sounds like a great idea! If this isn't added at least as an option to the core game, could I include it in my patch?

[chakkman]

Nice work. Even though I have no problem with quicksaving.

I can see how some people will not like this.

[Zerush]

Works flawless, but I think that it need a test in the Hazard Pay mission in hard mode, because there are only possible saving in certain save points.

[stgatilov]

I wonder if the scripted save rooms make proper screenshots?

[nbohr1more]

screenshot issue:

https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6561

frequent saving bug:

https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6276

[chumbucket91]

7 hours ago, wesp5 said:

If this isn't added at least as an option to the core game, could I include it in my patch?

Go for it.
 

Quote

Works flawless, but I think that it need a test in the Hazard Pay mission in hard mode, because there are only possible saving in certain save points.

I'll check that out today. Not sure if I'll be able to "fix" the mod or what such a fix would even look like.

[snatcher]

Well done @chumbucket91 ! The mod works just as advertised

[chumbucket91]

3 hours ago, chumbucket91 said:

Quote

Works flawless, but I think that it need a test in the Hazard Pay mission in hard mode, because there are only possible saving in certain save points.

I'll check that out today. Not sure if I'll be able to "fix" the mod or what such a fix would even look like.

Ran through Hazard Pay on expert for a few minutes, and the autosave script did manage to create a save at the five minute interval. So, as written, this mod overrides the intent of the FM author and just makes saves for you anyways.

Not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, its a player side "accessibility" mod so it does make sense that it would take precedence and not respect the setting. On the other hand, the whole point of this fm difficulty option is that you can't just save whenever you want and you need to use Resident Evil style "typewriter ink", which this mod renders irrelevant and that feels pretty bad.

Is there some cvar I could check in the autosave script to see if manual saving is disabled? And is that cvar fm specific to Hazard Pay or would it be reasonably future proof for other fms that may want to do something similar in the future?

Stretching ideas a bit further, how much scripting work would it take to have this mod add options to the options menu? Would be nice to have sliders to control the slot count, save time interval, and a tri-bool setting for "enabled", "enabled unless the FM says no manual saves are allowed", or "disabled".

 

btw, great FM so far @kingsal .

[wesp5]

15 hours ago, chumbucket91 said:

Stretching ideas a bit further, how much scripting work would it take to have this mod add options to the options menu? Would be nice to have sliders to control the slot count, save time interval, and a tri-bool setting for "enabled", "enabled unless the FM says no manual saves are allowed", or "disabled".

These are a lot of options, in my opinion only one enabling it or not would probably be enough. If this is enabled using a variable I could possibly add the option for my patch myself, but I haven't had a look yet...

P.S.: I tested this right now and it's so unobstrusive that I believe no options are necessary at all. If you want to play a mission hard-core like Hazard Pay, it's up to you to just not load any of the auto-saves :)!

Edited January 20 by wesp5

[ChronA]

1 hour ago, chumbucket91 said:

Ran through Hazard Pay on expert for a few minutes, and the autosave script did manage to create a save at the five minute interval. So, as written, this mod overrides the intent of the FM author and just makes saves for you anyways.

Not sure how I feel about that.

I think this is as it should be. I have been vocal in my support for Hazard Pay's and in preaching the value of respect for authorial intent. However I'm also a big believer in the freedom to modify software however you want. In my opinion, installing mods is like leaving the designated trails in a national park. It should be understood that by doing so you are taking full responsibility for your experience into your own hands. If you have a sub-optimal time, that's your own fault.

This could be a very valuable tool for people who want to experience TDM a certain way (authorial intent be damned) and it would be a shame to risk neutering it for the sake of a few edge cases.

[datiswous]

19 hours ago, stgatilov said:

I wonder if the scripted save rooms make proper screenshots?

In my experience they don't.

12 hours ago, chumbucket91 said:

Ran through Hazard Pay on expert for a few minutes, and the autosave script did manage to create a save at the five minute interval. So, as written, this mod overrides the intent of the FM author and just makes saves for you anyways.

It's actually good, because now you can play expert difficulty without (complete) savegame restriction.

Edited January 20 by datiswous

[kingsal]

I don't mind if people use autosaves in that mission. It will remove some of the tension, but thats up to them. My intent is for people to have fun, so whatever's groovy to them. 

[snatcher]

23 hours ago, chumbucket91 said:

Stretching ideas a bit further, how much scripting work would it take to have this mod add options to the options menu? Would be nice to have sliders to control the slot count, save time interval, and a tri-bool setting for "enabled", "enabled unless the FM says no manual saves are allowed", or "disabled".

My advise is to ship the mod the way you like it. Period.

If you think your mod is too extreme and want to please a broader audience then try to get that sweet spot.

Configurable settings should always be your last option.

[chumbucket91]

Welp, most folks seem to think that the mod is good as-is so I guess I'll leave it alone lol.

I think, in a hypothetical future where autosaves are incorporated into the base game, some option to either respect or override fm author intents would be necessary, but it seems that is not the ticket for a drop in mod and thats a reasonable enough argument for me.

Only thing I might change at some point is the time interval between saves (5 minutes is maybe a hair too short. 8 minutes maybe?). Otherwise, I've run through a few other fms with this and am pretty happy with it. Seems to even work in the Hidden Hands campaign so its resilient to more edge cases than I thought it would be when I posted it. Whoo!

[datiswous]

Btw. there is console command:

com_numQuickSaves N 	How many quicksaves to retain. Reducing the number won't delete any that you already have. 

Source: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Console_Useful_Controls

Default is 2 I think. I usually set it to 10. I think it's a one time set for all missions you play after.

This might be (extra?) helpful in combination with autosave.

Edited January 21 by datiswous

[peter_spy]

If autosaves are to be a feature, it would be more valuable to have actual checkpoint system, where FM authors can design where game would save.

[chakkman]

53 minutes ago, datiswous said:

Btw. there is console command:

com_numQuickSaves N 	How many quicksaves to retain. Reducing the number won't delete any that you already have. 

Default is 2 I think. I usually set it to 10. I think it's a one time set for all missions you play after.

This might be (extra?) helpful in combination with autosave.

Oh, that's a great info. Thanks for that. Might increase the number of quicksaves to 5 here, as, even with 2, there can be stuff happening.

[chakkman]

56 minutes ago, peter_spy said:

If autosaves are to be a feature, it would be more valuable to have actual checkpoint system, where FM authors can design where game would save.

That's what I thought too. An option for mission makers to trigger checkpoints in their maps.

I frankly still don't know if this is something for the core game though. I never had an issue with quicksaving only. It's a gameplay decision, I guess. And considering how many complain about "savescumming", and some FM authors introducing save rooms now, this will be highly controversial, if it makes it to the core game...

On the other hand, maybe something like this could replace save rooms. For those who really want to restrict themselves in that way.

Of course, it won't be backwards compatible for existing missions, unless you make it time based.

Edited January 21 by chakkman

[datiswous]

An idea is that it could (maybe) be set as a spawnarg (autosave 1) to an info_location. I mean that could be an easy way for mappers to integrate it.

So when a player enters that info_location, an autosave happens.

Spoiler

You could filter them out in Darkradiant via:

This hides everything except info _location entities and then hides all info_locations with no autosave spawnarg set.

(I just like making filters)

Edited January 21 by datiswous

[peter_spy]

I don't think there's a game/level editor available, where save checkpoints would be a feature, but it would be the first place for me to look, to get idea how the industry already tried to solve this problem.

[datiswous]

(offtopic btw.)

Well it's possible via a custom save-script connected to a trigger-brush but it's a bit difficult to implement currently. I know @joebarninhad such functionality in his last mission, but it was removed because it crashed Linux pc's. That bug is (probably) fixed in 2.13, so maybe now we can see it being implemented.

When a well working script is made, maybe it can be integrated into an entity and/or spawnarg (if I understand this correctly).

Edited January 21 by datiswous

[peter_spy]

7 hours ago, chakkman said:

I frankly still don't know if this is something for the core game though. I never had an issue with quicksaving only. It's a gameplay decision, I guess. And considering how many complain about "savescumming", and some FM authors introducing save rooms now, this will be highly controversial, if it makes it to the core game...

Save rooms probably need a level designed around them, it's hard to think of them as something universal that can be retroactively used anywhere. Checkpoints could work on the top of your manual saves and/or quicksaves, you'll just have more options to choose from when loading  

[snatcher]

16 hours ago, chumbucket91 said:

Only thing I might change at some point is the time interval between saves (5 minutes is maybe a hair too short. 8 minutes maybe?).

You want to increase it a little?

How about 6 minutes between saves with a maximum of 4 "soft" saves and a 5th "hard" save. That way we have a permanent save every 30 minutes of gameplay.

• __auto_1.save
• __auto_2.save
• __auto_3.save
• __auto_4.save
• __auto_20250121193402.save

[joebarnin]

5 hours ago, datiswous said:

I know @joebarninhad such functionality in his last mission

The mission was quite large, and I wanted to have checkpoints at the end of each "chapter". Just to keep people from losing too much if they forgot to save. Glad to see that it's probably fixed